Thursday, November 10, 2016

Dear (white) America, I just can't with you right now.

Dear (White) America,

I just can’t with you right now. I was not prepared for the range of emotions
that I would feel with this election result.
They have vacillated from snarky to angry to downright heartbroken. I was more optimistic than I realized. I
thought we were better than this. After
a cursory look at social media on Wednesday morning, I realized I needed to
stay away. There were too many things
that I just couldn’t hear from those who would select a reality tv star to run
our country. There are some things that
I don’t ever want to hear again.

1)Please don’t say we are a Christian
country. Stop lamenting that there is a
war on Christmas. Don’t post your
favorite Bible scripture and tell me to trust in God. God’s greatest commandment is to love one
another. You just elected a man that has
repeatedly disrespected and disregarded giant swaths of our population – anyone
that is other to him. Your vote validated
his words. I don’t want to hear that you
love everyone. Your actions speak louder
than your words and I hear you screaming at me right now. You make a mockery of Christianity.

2)Please don’t tell me not to be fearful. We live in a country where one in four women
can expect to be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. I have four daughters. Which one should I be prepared to
comfort? I have lost count of the number
of times this year that some (white) man has raped a women and gotten a slap on
the wrist because we’d hate to ruin his chances at a great life. My daughters
deserve a great life too. You just elected a man that bragged about sexually assaulting
women. How much more emboldened will
rapists be to attack my daughters when the President of the United States thinks
it is just fine?

3)Please don’t tell me that we need to put aside
our differences and work together. It is
our differences that make us special. This
guy ran a campaign that said different is bad and something to be feared. Why are you so fearful of difference? Why can’t we celebrate the different people
that make up our country? Why can’t we demonstrate
compassion to those who don’t look and worship like we do? When you tell people who are different from
you to put aside their differences, you devalue them. You demonstrate through your actions that you
don’t believe people of color, people who worship differently than you, people
who weren’t born here, people who are different from you have anything of value
to give to you.

4)Please don’t tell me that it is time to make
America great again. The only group that
the America of the past has been consistently great to is white men. At what point in time were we great? I need to know, so I can know what treatment
I can expect from you. I need to know,
so I can be prepared to stand by and use my privilege to protect those who have
traditionally been oppressed – people of color, religious minorities, LBGT, and
women. It’s time for you to wake up and
realize that greatness is not only contained within white skin. Until we celebrate the greatness of every
individual in our country, we will never be great.

On Wednesday morning, my girls
asked me what we are going to do now that Trump is going to be president. I told them we are going to keep doing what
we’ve been doing. We are going to love
one another. We are going to be kind to
others. We are going to stand beside our
friends who might look different than us and feel afraid right now. We are going to work to make sure everyone
feels valued because we are truly stronger together.